Question Box: "Made under
the Law"

Was everyone who was "made under the Law" of
Moses or old covenant also in the bonds of the
new or Abrahamic covenant, by reason of their
birth as an Hebrew?

Romans 9:6-8

Answer

No. This point is clearly expressed by the apostle
Paul when he wrote, "For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the
seed of Abraham, are they all children: but In Isaac
shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God: but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed." (Romans 9:6-8)

In the generations following Moses', which
generation voluntarily chose to come under the old
covenant at Sinai (Exodus 24:7), the children of the
Israelites were born under the old covenant
constitution, or, as it is scripturally expressed,
under the law. This was a hereditary covenant
by which the entitlement to its blessings and curses
was passed on from generation to generation as a
matter of fleshly lineage. Thus, it is written of the
Lord, that he was made under the law, in
common with all the people of Israel. The new or
Abrahamic covenant is distinguished from the old
covenant in that entitlement to its blessings was not
conferred by reason of birth as the natural seed of
Abraham.

These "children of the flesh" were not constituted
"the children of promise" by the circumstances of
their birth. Although literally, with respect to
their fleshly lineage, they were "of Israel (Jacob),"
they were not necessarily part of the eternal
blessings in the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
(Israel). What was the essential difference between
the two covenants, as it related to Israel after the
flesh? The old covenant was an arrangement into which
an Israelite was born, according to the law; the new
covenant was an arrangement that required
faith, as a condition of being joined to it by
God. Thus, in Romans 4, the apostle Paul expounds,
"For the promise, that he should be heir of the
world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith; For
if they which are of the law [another way of
expressing those made or born under the law of Moses]
be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of
none effect." [Romans 4:13,14] It is because of
this principle that those of us who were by nature
"sinners of the Gentiles" can be adopted as the seed
of Abraham through faith in Christ and by obedience
to the call of the gospel. [Mark 16:15-16, Ephesians
3:6] In Galatians 3:26-29, the apostle Paul expounds
how this relationship as heirs according to the
promise is brought about by baptism into
Christ.